Protect the Pomodoro

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External interruptions compete for your attention. You need to protect your Pomodoro to focus on completing a commitment. This is the commitment of focusing on one activity for 25 minutes. But when someone comes by your cubicle to see how you liked the latest episode of your favorite TV show, the optimum strategy might not always be to say, “Sorry, I’m in the middle of a Pomodoro. Can you come back later?”

So, you must “invert” the dependency between the Pomodoro and the interruptions. Email and phone are easy—you can turn them off. No one takes for granted that they will get an email reply in less than 25 minutes. Throwing ...

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